Where Form Meets Function. Steveo27’s Bolt-on Thread (Camping/Fishing/Weekend Exploring Build)

30 minutes a side on the balljoints with the correct press.

https://www.lowes.com/pd/CRAFTSMAN-12IN-CORDLESS-COMPACT-CHAINSAW/5001882173

I haven’t used it too much yet but it should come in handy cutting firewood at camp or clearing trails.

 

Thats pretty sweet for $140. I think i already have tools that use the same battery pack too.

 

More boring stuff.

Limit straps. Without em, the ball joint boots contact the coil springs at full droop. This should fix this.





Finally found the same style weatherstripping Prinsu uses on their fairings. Beats the heck out of the piece of split rubber hose I had been using.

 

More boring stuff.

Replaced the 50w solar panel with a 175w panel.

I should finally be able to maintain the house battery charge via solar alone.





Even mounted completely flat, it’ll still produce 5+ amps on a sunny day.

I trimmed the rear awning to fit between the solar shower and the side awning

trimmed 6” off of it so it’s only 4’ wide now.





I finally installed the Renogy battery monitor





This thing is an absolute must if you have solar or dual batteries. I can’t believe I didn’t install one earlier.

 

Some more random boring stuff…

DIY trans skid -





Not as good as most of them on the market, but it’s better than nothing. Protects the trans, driveshaft, and cats.

I replaced the steering rack bushings. Huge pain in the dick because I couldn’t get the high pressure side of the rack disconnected -





New plugs and filter today -





Plugs had about 55k miles on them, all 6 were gap’d right around .060”.

And I took a picture -

 

Man, that rack work looks like a PITA for sure. Not sure that I would attempt that one myself.

I like the DIY skid plate though! What thickness did you go with?

 

It ended up being a 8 hour job.

The skid is an old street sign. It thicker than the OEM skids, probably 1/8”.

 

Yawn…..

Rebooted the passenger inner CV.






Tweaked my solar shower tube and shower tote.

Added the 2 T’s to the tube so no water gets trapped if the truck is facing uphill.




Tweaked the shower by adding a 12v pump to it instead of relying on pressurizing the tube. Listening to an air compressor run in the woods is annoying, the 12v pump is much quieter.

 

More boring stuff

New passenger side axle seal. Started leaking right after I rebooted the axle.



Finally designed a better rod holder for my fly rods.



Did some camping.



And took a picture.

 

Couple random pictures from the weekend -

 

More boring…..

All Pro finally released their slim bumpers for the second gens. I’ve been waiting forever for something like this so I pulled the trigger.

















I love the bumper but I’m not sure if I’m sold on both sets of lights. I may just run the Hellas.

 

IMO, remove the Hellas and just run the pods. Cleans up the airflow path and with the pods on the lower side, they match well with the fogs... feng shui or something haha.

 

Found a XPower (Rural King) 10000k winch on Marketplace for a steal so I scooped it up.

My initial plan was to scoop up a HF Badlands winch on Black Friday but I couldn’t pass this up. This should be more than sufficient for the amount of times I’ll probably use it.





The bumper/winch combo weights in at around 160lbs. It’s barely noticeable surprisingly.

I plan on upgrading the fairlead to an aluminum piece and replacing the hook with a shackle of some sort.





Overall, I’m pretty damn happy with how the front end finally came together.

 

I love this truck.

 

Hi. Great build! How's the pop n lock treating you? Need this on my 06. Mechanical or not

 

Thanks.

No issues with it yet. I lube all the moving parts every few years.

 

Rolled over 200k miles this past weekend

 

More random stuff.

Ditched the front bumper light set up for something more useful.

This set up was my end goal, the Hellas were just a temporary solution.











The bracket still needs painted once it warms up.

I did my annual SPC UBJ rebuild



I’ll grease them throughout the year but I still like to pull the boots and inspect them and completely replace the grease for peace of mind.

And here’s a random picture from the last trip

 

That new setup is awesome.

your retrofits have me thinking i should do a set for the truck. I really like the final product for the ones i did for the integra. the headlights on my taco are really lacking now that the lenses are blistered and yellowed etc...